03/04/2011

Tanzania's ultimate challenge

Despite the undeniable indigenous beauty of this Indian Ocean-bordering Muslim nation, Tanzania's issue with fresh water access is an increasingly dangerous problem for the local population. Regional droughts during the past several years have undeniably caught up to the land. Even worse, on an island as compact as Zanzibar, tourist resort development has skyrocketed. This means that the limited amount of fresh water flowing through the island's underground system is being steadily prioritized away from the local villages, instead to the resorts that support the island's important tourism industry. With few resources of its own, as is the norm for most islands in general, tourism is a vital sector for Zanzibar's growth ... and also one of its biggest challenges. With industry statistics for the next decade looking like an explosion of numbers that the island's small infrastructure is clearly not yet ready to handle, the issue of water will hopefully be pushed to the forefront for the sake of sustainability.